Books - Updated March 23 :Books Board Traffic : Read This

jjt · 11-30-2003, 11:06 AM

Howdy Bookworms! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wave.gif[/img]

Hope everyone had a safe holiday. And now that we're between holiday seasons, I wanted to get some ideas. I know it's a crazy busy time of year. That we have little enough time to take care of shopping and family functions let alone read and post about what we've read.

But I also know we're all addicts to the written word and try to make time despite the hustle and bustle of the season. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

But things on board have been kinda quiet lately. I think with the new boards adding, I'd like to see Books traffic increase and grab some of the new posters and keep the old posters talking and get the lurkers posting. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

So wondering if anyone had ideas on how to increase the participation / posting?

Starlightmint · 11-30-2003, 08:45 PM

As a moderator, I've been concerned with this as well not only for my board but with other boards too including the Books board. I love books and always try to post here but I have to agree, it's rather quiet so it's hard to get discussions going.

Um. I hope you don't mind if I make some suggestions? How about an OT thread? They get a lot of traffic and help foster a sense of community which might encourgae posters to interact with others more? Or a Booker Prize/Pulitzer Prize Thread? I like reading Booker Prize winning books since I find them very laudworthy but I don't know if other people would like to have a discussion about them. Or maybe just a thread about Award Winning Books? Or an FF Book Club? I remember someone started it and a lot of people showed interest but it wasn't updated again so maybe the mods could start one and see to it that it stays active? [img]smilies/look.gif[/img]

[ 11-30-2003: Message edited Starlightmint ]

Soz · 11-30-2003, 09:53 PM

I too like the idea of an OT thread. It's nice to talk about other things with fellow bookaholics.

I second the vote for an award winning book thread. I think having it be about multiple awards might be best because then it allows for all genres and it might get more traffic if it's for all major awards since they seem to happen throughout the year.

I don't know what else to suggest though. I try to post quite a bit, but a lot of the times the threads just sort of die off after I post. I think there's a lot less traffic since the two big crashes and I wish people would come back! [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

thescoobygang · 12-01-2003, 01:14 PM

This is the second time I've seen slow traffic mentioned around FF. I hope this isn't a trend. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

Count my vote in for an award winners thread, OT thread and FF Bookclub.

Other ideas� [img]smilies/idea.gif[/img]

-How about improving the �recommended books� thread so that it uses the Amazon Listmania format? This way people can post their own theme-based recommendation lists which will be easier to scroll through at a quick glance. (examples of list titles: �books to read at the beach�, �books for the SF fanatic�, "hot historical romance", or �if you like Author X than try these books�� etc. etc...) I find these theme-based lists appeal to people who are looking for a specific genre/author to suit their current mood.

-Add a another book-related game/trivia thread?

-Occasional surveys/polls on books, authors, reading habits, the book industry, spending habits etc�.

~tSG

Soz · 12-01-2003, 01:22 PM

I had another idea, but I'm not sure if it's allowed or not. I've noticed a lot of science fiction and fantasy fans posting on the general threads, but they never post at the SFF thread. Would it be okay to PM them and invite them to the SFF thread? Or is that considered spamming?

tsg, great idea about making the recommendations themed like the Listmania lists.

Starlightmint · 12-01-2003, 07:53 PM

I like the idea of themed recommendations. It's easier to go through and find books you'd be interested to read with divisions like that.

And , Soz, I don't think there's anything wrong with PMing people to post. The Supermods have encouraged this from us mods and we've also tried this for our board and it has worked.

I was also thinking about the What Are You Reading/Last Books You've Read Threads. In the Movies board, lists aren't allowed there must be a brief thought on the film so maybe we could do that here at the Books board to help generate discussions.

Soz · 12-01-2003, 08:07 PM

Starlightmint, thanks. I will try that then.

I also think it would be good to have people post their thoughts on the books they've just read. I don't know if it would work for the current reading thread though because what if you just started the book or really haven't formed an opinion yet? I always seem to come up blank when trying to post my thoughts on an unfinished book.

Starlightmint · 12-01-2003, 08:42 PM

Good point, Soz. I find that happens to me when I'm in the middle of reading a book, I can't really form opinions about it just yet. I guess it's really up to the mods of the board to decide.

I was also thinking of an author of the month/week thread? The mods could pick an author, preferably someone established and pretty well known and we could all discuss the author and his or her works in one thread. Like maybe Anne Rice or J.K. Rowling or Salman Rushdie. An author established enough to generate a discussion.

jjt · 12-01-2003, 10:59 PM

All great ideas .. keep them coming! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

evaki · 12-02-2003, 02:44 PM

hi all [img]smilies/wave.gif[/img]

great ideas. i would be interested in just about all them. the only one i'd bypass would be the bookgroup, just because i s@ck at reading books on a deadline (barely made it through high school, college, and grad school trying to keep up with the deadlines). but that's just me. i'd probably tune in just to hear other people's input on the book even if i didn't participate.

here's my suggestions, first, a new/emerging authors thread for authors with maybe only one or two books and a limited following. we'd help them establish a fan base, and have good word of mouth to let others know about them. second, maybe some mods would be interested in soliciting authors through their official websites and asking them to participate in our on-going threads (we have several authors and series that stay pretty active). the way i imagine it, it would go something like this: an author agrees to answer fan questions on a specific day, posters would get on in advance of the specified date and ask their questions, then on the agreed date the author would come to the thread, answer the posted questions, and we could all get back on later to see the responses.

obviously that's a stretch but some authors may be willing. i just keep thinking of kelley armstrong from the women of the other world series. she's done a chat before with fans from her yahoo group. i'd bet she'd do this kind of thing. she also seemed open to all kinds of questions from her motivation, to the reasearch conducted, to the future of the characters. she also has a new book being released (feb in canada, and march or april in the US) and maybe happy to do the publicity racket to help promote it.

so why not just ask them to have a chat? well, posting on a thread seems just a little less chaotic than an actual chat where you may have 10 or 15 other people lobbying for attention to their questions, while you're still responding to the last one. this way each question can be attended to in turn and (hopefully) more completely. and also hopefully requires just a little less work and coordination on the part of the author, they get to just sit down at a time that is convenient to them, for as long as suits them and know all the questions are just waiting their when they get there.

just a few thoughts

Crossbow · 12-02-2003, 04:41 PM

I've noticed all the boards I go to here seem to be slow. I think it's a combination of the holidays and school finals.

Princess Bing · 12-03-2003, 12:57 AM

Yes, OT threads will surely pick up the pace, plus it'll keep the posters loyal, since most would just like to drop by and say what they have to say about certain literature they've read and then leave. And maybe we could also have lists or 'ships' or something... something people could identify with and want to be a part of. By genre, by author, whatever. That way, we could also have news on what's going on in that world, be constantly updated, have more things to discuss. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Hope that helps.

Carrie99 · 12-03-2003, 12:37 PM

Hi y'all. Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'm going to top this thread because there's some new very important info that y'all need to read.:

Quote:

Hi everyone! As you all know, Fan Forum has been undergoing some changes, and one thing that the management team at this website really wants is for each message board to be vital and active, and to do that, we need to bring up traffic on this message board as much as possible by starting topics that are relevant to this message board, so we can get some good discussions going about Books. The management team has requested that we maintain an average of at least 75 posts per week, but I know if we all work together, we�ll be able to meet that goal easily, so let�s get posting!

In other word the majority of post should be content related and not just games threads.

Starting this Sunday December 7 through Sunday December 14, the management will be monitoring each board and if each board doesn't have at least 75 posts during this time period the board will be closed. I love this board and don't want that to happen. Roughly 10 posts a day shouldn't be that hard. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

If anyone has any questions, please post here. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Crossbow · 12-03-2003, 04:58 PM

You know, almost everyone on FF probably reads, and there are millions and millions of books in print - you wouldn't think we'd have any lack of things to say!

I don't like game threads. I think it would be better if we could all get our friends from other forums to come post here.

Deee · 12-03-2003, 06:14 PM

I rushed over to the beloved book thread as soon as I heard about the slow traffic. This is so sad. People should come over and post more everyone reads. It's just a matter of clicking over to the book thread and part taking in our wonderful discussions. I love the book thread, and hate to see it go. We just have to kind of get it rolling. Heh.
'
An OT discussion sounds great though!